Cataloochee Valley Elk Herd.

This past Saturday, we drove up to the Cataloochee Valley section of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. This is the least used area of the entire park. I believe the reason for that is the access to this area is by one lane gravel road full of switchbacks and blind curves. But it is totally beautiful, and the trip in was very enjoyable to us. The reason for our trip was to see the Elk herd. The last native elk in area was estimated to be sometime in the 1700s. Over hunting was the main reason for the elks disappearance here. In 2001, the NPS re-introduced elk to the Great Smokey Mountains, by transplanting some from the Land between the Lakes Kentucky. They started with I believe around 20, now the herd is over 70 and thriving. You almost have this section of the park to yourself. There are sevaral historic homes, a school, a church, as well as several old cemeterys. But the main attraction is the elk herd. We were able to see several grazing in the meadow by the Beech Grove School house. A couple of park volunteers had some Elk antlers a hiker had found last spring (they shed them in the spring, just as white tail deer do), and allowed us to hold and photograph them. They are huge! We also got the geocache GC9916 as well as a nearby benchmark FB1254, (a really cool hydrology station). Our only regret is we did not get to hear the legendary bugling call of the bull elk, maybe next time.